"So, what exactly happened?" Peacock Lord asked, his voice low but filling the entire stage.
Mei Hongyi's face grew dark as he began his report, his heart racing in his chest. "Clan Chief, here's the situation…" He went over the details of the exam, talking about the rules he had set, the rewards for the winners, and, most importantly, the sudden appearance of Feng Luotian. He tried to keep his voice steady, but the weight of those six powerful gazes made his hands shake.
The six listeners remained calm through the explanation of the exam. When Hongyi reached Luotian's appearance, however, their expressions changed from surprise to keen interest.
Even Mei Hengkong, who had seemed interested only in his granddaughter, turned his full attention toward Mei Hongyi. The old man leaned forward to listen more closely.
Looking at the glowing image on the screen, Mei Xue'er broke the silence with a playful laugh. "Oh my! When did Tian'er become so manly? He's even more handsome than you were in your younger days, darling!"
Her fun and teasing personality was a total contrast to her daughter, Mei Yue'er, who was always serious and full of worry.
Peacock Lord chuckled in response, his mood seeming to lighten up as he looked at the screen. "Hehe, stop trying to drag me into a competition. Why would I ever try to compete with Tian'er when it comes to looks?"
Annoyed that he wouldn't play along, Xue'er huffed and crossed her arms. "Hmph! What a boring old man! Tian'er has always been a dazzling boy. If I were still single, I'd be fighting with Yue'er to win his heart after this!"
The rest of the group exchanged small, awkward smiles at her dramatic words, though the air remained thick with the importance of the moment.
Clearing his throat to bring the focus back, Peacock Lord shifted the talk. "Ahem! In any case, it's great news that Tian'er has grown so powerful. It's a relief for everyone."
He then turned his sharp eyes toward Mei Hongyi, offering his thoughts on the test. "Hongyi, overall, the design of the exam is well thought out—the rules, the rewards, and even the traps you set. This will make sure only the students with the most potential will pass."
"Thank you, Clan Chief!" Mei Hongyi said, bowing so low his forehead almost touched the floor.
However, Peacock Lord's tone suddenly grew much sharper, like a cold wind. "That said, you're doting on your son far too much. If you wanted to give him a late-stage Talon core, you didn't need to go through such a messy and complicated plan."
Caught off guard, Mei Hongyi stammered, his face turning red. "No, I wasn't—"
Peacock Lord interrupted him, his voice steady and hard as stone. "And if you were trying to make your son's reputation better, you should have taught him to act more naturally. That way, the cheating wouldn't be so easy for everyone to see."
Mei Hongyi fell silent, his mouth hanging open but no words coming out. He felt like a small bug pinned under a giant's boot.
"But," Peacock Lord continued, dismissing the whole thing with a casual wave of his hand as if it were a small mistake, "what's done is done. Let's see how it all unfolds from here." With that, he turned his attention back to the screens, leaving Mei Hongyi standing there utterly speechless and full of shame.
* * *
Back within the exam site, the air felt thick and heavy as the standoff between Feng Luotian and Mei Hongli reached a breaking point. The dry dust hung in the wind, a warning of the violence to come.
"Stop wasting my time! It's time to flush out the main cheater from this place. You've had your fun," Luotian declared, fixing Mei Hongli with a cold, determined stare.
///// Seven Fangs Thousand Illusion Aurora Peacock
///// [Illusion Clone]: The user can create an illusion clone at the cost of Theríon. The higher the clone's level, the more Theríon it costs. Creating an illusion clone at the same level as the user requires their maximum Theríon capacity.
Mei Hongli sneered at him, his face twisting with deep hate and pride. "You? Send me out? Don't make me laugh. If you really are Feng Luotian, then don't you dare forget the bet we made one month ago."
"Of course," Luotian replied casually, his tone as smooth and calm as a quiet lake. "If you actually take the top ranking in this exam, I'll keep my word—I'll stay far away from Yue'er and never speak to her again."
Hearing those words, Mei Hongli's face went pale before turning a deep red. "To remember that bet... it seems you really are Feng Luotian after all. But how? How did you increase your cultivation so quickly? It's impossible!"
Though doubt still clouded his mind, the evidence—the way the boy spoke, the memory of the bet, and that annoying personality—left no room for any other answer. This had to be the real Feng Luotian.
But Luotian had no interest in talking anymore. With a powerful stomp that cracked the dry ground beneath his boots, he launched himself forward. His figure became a blur of motion, a streak of purple and gold cutting through the air.
Panicked, Mei Hongli instinctively activated Aurora Treading Step. Even though he believed he was stronger, his survival instincts were screaming at him to get away. A bright streak of green light wrapped around him as he teleported roughly two hundred meters away to what he thought was safety.
But Luotian's lips curved into a sharp, knowing smile. "Were you even thinking when you used that move to fight against me? I've seen it a thousand, no, ten thousand times before."
Without missing a beat, Luotian shifted his weight mid-air. His speed surged as he predicted exactly where the green light would end. In a heartbeat, he arrived at the exact spot where Mei Hongli reappeared.
Luotian twisted at the hips and unleashed a devastating spin kick. His heavy boot connected squarely with Mei Hongli's soft stomach.
The sound of the impact was a deep, sickening thud. The force of the blow sent Mei Hongli flying backward like a broken doll. He crashed into an ancient ruin, and the old stone structure collapsed around him in a giant cloud of gray dust and broken rocks.
Luotian didn't wait to see if his opponent would get up. With a newly formed Evil Cyclone spinning around him, he charged straight toward the wreckage. He was determined to finish this before Mei Hongli could even catch his breath.
As Luotian closed the distance to forty-five meters, his Momentum Eyes activated. A bright blue glow filled his gaze, making the world feel like it was moving through water. His mind worked ten times faster, allowing him to react instantly when a sharp beam of blue light shot toward his head.
Tilting his head just an inch, he dodged the light with perfect timing. Right after, a small dagger sliced through the thick smoke, missing his ear by a hair as he twisted his body to avoid the hidden blade.
Moving through the thick smoke, Luotian weaved through each secret attack with smooth, liquid speed. As the haze finally began to clear, a shadowy figure showed itself within the thinning cloud. Wasting no time, Luotian lunged forward, throwing a punch full of raw power aimed straight at the figure's chest.
Boom! The heavy attack landed with a sound like a thunderclap, but the figure did not bleed or break. Instead, it dissolved into a shimmering cascade of aurora light that floated away into the air.
Luotian wasn't surprised at all. Illusion Clone, huh? he reckoned, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the settling dust. He knew this wasn't the end; it was only the beginning of a messy game of hide-and-seek.
Illusion Clone was the Mei Clan's signature bloodline ability. It allowed a cultivator to create lifelike copies of themselves out of thin air. These clones looked exactly like the original but lacked their full power.
Depending on how much Theríon was poured into them, they could be used as quick distractions or as tools for a long fight. While Mei Hongli could only manage a few because of his weak mastery, his father, Mei Hongyi, could produce thousands at once, turning a battlefield into a sea of faces.
Even though the clone was gone, the exchange wasn't a total loss for Luotian. The force of his own impact had generated yet another red Evil Cyclone, which now spun around him with a low, hungry hum.
Before he could even take a breath, a sudden flash of sharp blue light swept past his neck, the cold air from the blade stinging his skin. Sensing the danger, Luotian moved his body before he even thought about it. Mei Hongli stepped out from the right, his sword swinging toward Luotian's throat with mean, dark intent.
Luotian leapt into the air, the sword passing just inches beneath his boots. As he went up, he spun his body like a top and threw a whip kick aimed straight at Mei Hongli's head. But even before the kick landed, Luotian spoke with a knowing smirk. This one too, I guess.
Just as he predicted, the figure turned into aurora light once more, vanishing without leaving a single mark on his boot.
Following those two quick tricks, a new streak of blue light appeared—this one was much faster and more violent. It slashed downward from Luotian's head toward his crotch. At this terrifying speed, it looked like Luotian was about to be split in half right there in the dirt.
Buzz. Thunder.
In an instant, Luotian's body exploded with a bright purple aura that crackled with wild lightning. The energy coming off him was so strong it felt like the air itself was shaking. It was far more intense than anything he had shown before.
"Hmph! Nothing will work if you aren't fast enough!" Luotian sneered. He vanished in a flash of lightning, leaving a sharp smell of ozone behind him. The heavy sword slash struck empty air.
"What?! How?!" Mei Hongli shouted, his eyes wide with a deep shock. His attack was supposed to be the final blow, but he had missed completely.
The one attacking this time truly was the real Mei Hongli. He had planned everything out, thinking that his two Illusion Clones would distract Luotian long enough for him to land a killing strike. He would have won, too—if not for Luotian's sudden activation of Pinnacle Flash Lightning.
This new speed turned Luotian into a streak of lightning that couldn't be touched. He moved so fast the human eye couldn't even see his shadow, leaving only a trail of golden sparks dancing across the grass. Mei Hongli's heart hammered against his ribs in fear. If his enemy kept moving like this, there was no way he could ever land a single hit.
Frustrated and trapped, Mei Hongli roared, "Come out and face me directly if you have the guts! Stop running!"
"Okay," came Luotian's plain, flat reply.
Without hesitation, Luotian sent his three Evil Cyclones spinning toward Mei Hongli. The red winds converged on the boy's weak spots, forcing him to scramble to defend himself against their relentless attacks.
But the real threat wasn't the wind.
A flash of golden lightning streaked behind him, and in the next heartbeat, four heavy hits landed in a row.
A punch to the stomach.
A kick to the right leg.
A kick to the left temple.
A punch to the face.
The attacks were so fast and so perfect that Mei Hongli's brain couldn't even process the pain. The next thing he knew, the world spun around him, and he was suddenly lying on the grass outside the exam site. His body felt battered and broken, as if a horse had kicked him repeatedly. He hadn't seen Luotian's shadow, and he certainly didn't understand what had just hit him.
"Hmph! Too weak!" Luotian snarled. His voice was full of deep contempt as he stood alone on the battlefield.
The gap in their power was now clear for everyone to see. The "main cheater" had been dealt with as easily as a piece of trash being thrown away.
* * *
For a breath, the crowd outside the exam site fell silent. Then cheers erupted, rolling across the stands as spectators shouted Feng Luotian's name. They had watched him defeat Mei Hongli in moments, and their excitement only grew as they called out to the figure on the screen.
Meanwhile, Mei Hongyi scrambled to his son's side, his hands shaking with a hot, dark rage as he began to treat the boy's wounds. The sheer force of Mei Hongli's defeat was written in every deep bruise and blood-stained mark across his battered body. It looked as if he had been struck by a falling mountain.
Unable to hold back his fury any longer, Mei Hongyi threw his head back and bellowed toward the screen where his son's nemesis was displaying his might in full wrath, "FENG LUOT—"
"Do you really have to be that angry?"
Peacock Lord's calm, steady voice cut through the noise like a cold wind. "Part of this is your own fault for not setting rules against fights between students. Just a short while ago, your son's own men sent participants out of this exam with that same level of cruelty. It seems the boy was only following the example you allowed."
The flatness of Peacock Lord's comment acted like a bucket of ice water, silencing Mei Hongyi instantly. "That's not…" he tried to sputter a response, his face turning a sickly shade of red, but the crushing weight of Peacock Lord's gaze left him fumbling for words that wouldn't come.
Peacock Lord continued, his tone sharp and hard, yet perfectly controlled. "I do agree that Tian'er went a bit too far with those final punches. Once the exam is over, I will speak to him and see that he is punished in a way that fits his actions."
"Thank you for your understanding, Clan Chief," Mei Hongyi said, his voice tight as he bowed his head low.
Though he spoke with respect, a deep doubt gnawed at his gut. He knew very well that Peacock Lord would likely do nothing to hurt Luotian, especially with the boy showing such incredible talent and winning the favor of the city.
Mei Hongyi had no choice but to let the matter drop for the moment, but as he looked down at his broken son, he began to quietly plan how he would settle this debt later.